Weekly Newsletter, July 4th

Our worker-management team is devoting huge time and energy to developing the framework for a sliding scale cooperative community grocery store. The to-do list has grown to include: laying out the store, inventory and product selection, building upgrades, Point of Sale system development, cleaning, and numerous other tasks. We do these day-to-day tasks all while keeping our primary objective in mind: creating a flexible and responsive relational economy in the context of a dynamic and accessible grocery experience for everyone who chooses to engage.     Inspiration from Others MARSH receives a regular email newsletter from the New Economy Coalition, a membership-based network of organizations working to build a solidarity economy (our very own board member, Julia Ho, also sits on the board of NEC!) This week’s message caught my eye as even more relevant than usual to MARSH’s own work toward community-centered food solutions and so thought I’d share the news of Creative Wildfire, a collaboration between Climate Justice Alliance, Movement Generation, and New Economy Coalition.   Their manifesto begins,   The Global Pandemic and the continued injustice toward people and the planet is changing life as we know it. So much is being lost, taken away, or destroyed. We say: enough is enough.   As parts of our world re-open, we’re told it’s safe to return to “normal.” But what is normal, really?   Normal is careless. Normal is ableist. Normal is profit over life. Normal is having a boss. Normal is not getting paid what you deserve. Normal is the theft of land and life, and the myth of white supremacy. Normal is what got us into this mess in the first place.   Creative Wildfire and its partners are proposing a transition. To what, though? Their response is:   Cooperative farms Community land trusts Worker-owned enterprises Community controlled renewable energy Cooperative housing Mutual aid networks Local non-extractive loan funds Worker-owned health clinics Creative Wildfire has issued a Call for Proposals to artists/cultural workers who may need funds to produce work that amplifies “the strategic frameworks and grassroots solutions of frontline organizations towards a larger transformative cultural shift of restoring governance to the people and re-rooting economic decisions locally.”   MARSH would love to see such projects bloom and grow in St. Louis! Whether it is this program or something else, we invite you to reach out to us with any idea that our team could help host or develop! bioculturalist@gmail.com